The Affordable Care Act Saves People, and Those People Want to Protect It

Despite what nearly every GOP conservative may say about the Affordable Care Act, the law has actually been beneficial to many and has saved many lives. The ACA is under threat once again from opponents who filed a claim that would cut off health subsidies from those who depend on those subsidies in over 30 states, reported ThinkProgress.

In response, several people who have benefited from the ACA have filed an amicus brief yesterday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, asking the court to reject the opponents’ claim.

David Tedrow is one of those people whose lives have been saved by the ACA, and who also helped file the amicus brief. Tedrow, a North Carolina resident, was suffering from liver failure at the end of 2013. Were it not for the ACA, he would not have been able to afford a much-needed liver transplant and the follow-up care. Because he had ACA coverage, Tedrow wasn’t removed from the transplant list.

ThinkProgress noted other individuals listed as signatories on the amicus brief, all of whom are people whose lives have been saved by the ACA. Jared Blitz was born with a heart condition and was able to afford heart-surgery because of ACA coverage. Another signatory, Jennifer Causor, has cystic fibrosis, for which the ACA has provided care. And another is Steve Orofino who is a cancer patient who says he “would have had to declare bankruptcy or I could be dead by now if it weren’t for the Act.”

If the plaintiffs wanting to shut down the ACA succeed in convincing the court to cut off the subsidies in these states, then thousands, if not millions, of people will lose out on beneficial medical coverage. Out-of-pocket medical costs will drastically increase for those who would otherwise be covered by the ACA.

According to another amicus brief filed on behalf of over a dozen economists, cutting subsidies would cause premiums to increase, which in make health coverage “unaffordable for more than 99 percent of the families and individuals eligible for subsidies” in states with federal exchanges, ThinkProgress reported. This could trigger an individual health insurance market collapse.

The ACA isn’t some socialistic, anti-American law that going to throw the country into utter ruin. It’s just a law, and one that’s given health coverage to millions of Americans. However, in classic GOP fashion, opponents care more about insurance companies than they do the People.